How to sell yourself in motorsport

Whether you’re a racing driver, are looking for your big break in the industry, or are moving up the motorsport career ladder, it’s important that you learn how to sell yourself.

Being modest is all well and good but it’s not going to land you a sponsor or get you a job interview. Now, I’m not saying you need to be cocky (although that does work well for some racing drivers), you just need to be able to tell it like it is when it comes to your skills and achievements.

A lot of people shy away from talking about what they’ve achieved and prefer to opt for a simple list of what they’ve done in the past. While it’s important to list your skills, they don’t really have any context without saying where they got you.

For example, a racing driver stating he or she won the championship for the second year in a row is impressive but it’s taken to a whole new level when you offer up the information that the season got off to a terrible start due to two DNFs but you managed to fight back towards the end of the season to take the title by just a few points.

If you’re looking for a motorsport job and are beefing up your CV, don’t just talk about roles and responsibilities because the daily tasks undertaken by one mechanic, are likely to be the same as any other. So instead of saying you’ve been working with a race team to help prepare and run the race cars, talk about that time you worked through the night to rebuild an engine, or the ingenious way you repaired crash damage in time for the second race of the day. Not only does this show your skills but it also shows your dedication and ability to think on your feet.

Get over your fear

The first step to being able to conquer the skill of selling yourself is to get over any fear of being big-headed or arrogant. That’s not what’s happening here, for a start, but it’s about confidence in your own abilities in your chosen profession.

Start by listening to affirmations. I’m not kidding, pull up YouTube and search for positive affirmations. You’ll find all sorts relating to careers and confidence. It’s a great way to remind yourself what you’re capable of, even if the mantra is as generic as ‘I am good at my job’.

What have you achieved?

Write down a list of the things you are most proud of in your career. Here are some of mine:

Built two businesses from scratch with high-five figure turnovers

Ran a race team that won its first six races and continued to pick up podiums and wins throughout the rest of the season

Developed a plan for a motorsport business that helped it to achieve £100,000 in investment

Coached a racing driver to second place in a national racing scholarship

Depending on what career you’re looking to go into, you might use one of the following:

Built a YouTube channel to 50,000 subscribers and 1m views

Won an award for young sports journalist of the year

Helped to build the race-winning [car name] for the [championship name]

Took over a number one mechanic duties at the last minute during a busy race weekend due to staff shortages

Drove from the back of a 30-car grid at [track name] after a bad qualifying and went on to win the race

Helped to reduce costs for [team name] after installing a new IT system at HQ

Built a race-winning car from scratch and on a tight budget of just £3000

Do you see how these are different to simply listing what you did in a job?

Continue writing down these achievements and it’ll soon become easier to identify them. The key is to think about the things you’ve done in your job that you’re proud of and that have made a difference.

You don’t have to use all of these in your motorsport CV but get used to singing your own praises because employers (and sponsors) need to see why they should choose you over someone with similar experience and skills.

Let’s start now. What have you achieved in your career that you’re most proud of?

Serious about improving your motorsport CV?

We have a CV writing course tailored to the motorsport industry. Not only will it help you to sing your own praises but it’ll teach you to build and structure your CV too.